PrepaidSIM Research Desk

The PrepaidSIM Research Desk tracks cost-per-GB across every major eSIM provider for 185 countries. One goal: show the cheapest plan, always.

Travelers waste money on eSIM data every day because comparing prices across five providers and 185 countries by hand is impractical. A plan that costs $2.10/GB in one provider’s storefront costs $0.78/GB from a competitor for the same destination and data size. PrepaidSIM finds that gap automatically and surfaces it on every country page.

Plan data is sourced via direct provider APIs and official storefronts, verified every Monday. Rankings are 100% price-driven. No payment accepted for placement. If a provider offers higher commissions, their rank stays the same. The cheapest plan wins.

We track five providers: HelloRoam, Airalo, Holafly, Saily, and Nomad. These five account for the consumer eSIM market for international travelers across the destinations where demand is highest. Coverage gaps, plan availability by country, and pricing floors are updated weekly.

All prices are normalized to USD using the European Central Bank daily reference rate. This runs every sync cycle — no stale conversions.

Cost-per-GB is calculated by dividing the USD price by the plan's data allowance. A $9.40 plan with 10 GB = $0.94/GB. Plans rank cheapest-first within each country page.

Price trends are tracked over 30-day rolling windows using 12 weeks of history. The trend arrow shows whether a plan's $/GB rate went down, up, or held flat versus 30 days prior.

Unlimited plans are excluded from per-GB rankings. They appear separately with a daily-rate equivalent for reference.

All pricing data originates from official provider channels. For providers that offer public APIs, data pulls directly from those endpoints. For providers without a public API, automated scripts read official storefront pricing pages. No user-submitted pricing data enters the ranking tables.

Raw API responses and storefront snapshots are archived for 90 days. This archive supports retroactive audits when a provider changes their plan structure or API schema. Any price visible on PrepaidSIM was verified within the last seven days by the automated polling system.

Airport SIM prices come from a separate track. The top 35 international airports by passenger volume are checked monthly against official airport operator websites and concession partner pages. Community-sourced airport prices are accepted from verified frequent travelers, labelled separately, and removed after 90 days if not refreshed by an operator source.

Exchange rates for USD normalization come from the European Central Bank daily reference rate. The rate is fetched at poll time each Monday. Stale exchange rates older than 24 hours are never used. Every plan’s original currency price is stored alongside the converted USD figure so the conversion can be audited independently.

PrepaidSIM is run by the PrepaidSIM Research Desk, an independent team focused on eSIM and prepaid mobile pricing data. The project started because finding an accurate, up-to-date price comparison for travel data was harder than it should be. Most comparison sites were either months out of date or structured around affiliate revenue rather than honest ranking.

The Research Desk focuses on price data accuracy above all other considerations. The team maintains the polling infrastructure, monitors for provider API changes, audits normalization calculations, and queues confirmed corrections for publication in the next Monday polling run. Data quality is reviewed weekly after each cycle completes.

Team members are not identified publicly. The work product is the data, and the data is verifiable independently. Any reader who wants to check a figure can visit the provider’s storefront, confirm the plan price, and compare it against what PrepaidSIM shows. If the numbers differ, the corrections inbox is open — corrections that can be verified go live in the next Monday cycle.

This site runs on affiliate commissions. When a plan is purchased through a link here, a small percentage goes to PrepaidSIM. This keeps the data free and the polling infrastructure running without charging readers.

Affiliate commission rates are not shared with the team that builds rankings. The ranking algorithm has no input for payment, commission rate, or provider relationship. Every country page carries an affiliate disclosure label so readers know the context. The cheapest plan always ranks first, regardless of what commission any provider offers.

PrepaidSIM does not accept sponsored articles, paid placement, “partner spotlights,” or any other commercial editorial arrangement. Ranking position is earned by offering a lower $/GB rate than competitors. There is no other path to rank #1 on any country page.